Elk Grove Police Department expands drone capabilities with new updates
(FOX40.COM) — Drones have become a popular tool for law enforcement agencies across the country in recent years and the technology and systems behind them are always evolving.
The Elk Grove Police Department has had drones since 2019 and in May 2024 the agency launched its 'Drone as a First Responder' program. Almost a year, later drone use is still expanding.
In January, the department was granted a waiver by the FAA freeing it from the requirment to have rooftop observers every time a drone is launched. The change expanded the department's availability to respond to calls from Tuesday to Friday noon to 10 p.m. to 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, that change coupled with new updates to their FlightOps module is giving the department even more resources to respond to calls for service.
A new update to the department's FlightOps module now allows pilots to launch drones almost immediately when a call comes in, saving precious time in emergencies. Elk Grove PD uses Mark43 CAD, a cloud-native computer-aided dispatch, as its emergency dispatch system. The system has been integrated with its drone program allowing drone pilots to listen to live 911 calls and automatically launch drones to calls for service.
'The pilot would be able to see the cad calls that are active, and they would have to manually type in the address and so that takes time and when seconds matter having a FlightOps model where they can just click on the location eliminates all that process,' Elk Grove Police Department Lt. Nate Lange said. 'The other part of that is our license plate readers are now integrated into our FlightOps module as well so if a license plate reader is flagged for a felony vehicle or stolen car, it'll flag the pilot as well and we're able to go to that exact location with just the click of a button.'
It's also expanded the types of calls for service the department can help with via drone including missing persons, car crashes, and robberies to name a few. The department said it's even been able to help Cosumnes Fire with live feeds during structure fires.
Another update includes a map overlay as the drone flies over an area. Pilots and watch commanders can see the names of businesses and landmarks a suspect is passing in real time and relay that information quickly to crews on the ground.
'Historically, you'd be able to look at a map or look at a video feed from a drone. You wouldn't know where you're at unless you had a familiarization with the community,' Lt. Lange said.
The drones are also reaching new heights in the physical sense. The same waiver granted by the FAA in January not only allows the department to fly its drones autonomously to calls — but to do so up to 400 feet in the air. It's a leash the department said greatly expands their ability to get to you faster.
'There's been thousands of hours of inspections of these units to ensure that there's proficiency and consistency on their safety so we are happy and comfortable moving forward now with a program that doesn't have a remote pilot on the roof full-time but they are still doing pre-flight inspections and we're still ensuring that the system is operational and still functioning as it's been promised,' Lt. Lange said.
Once the batteries are changed and the pilot gives the clear from inside the operation center, the drone launches. The department has three drones as part of its 'Drone as a First Responder' program. Depending on where a call for service comes in, any of those three drones can be used and get to the scene in less than three minutes.
In many cases, the drones arrive on the scene before traditional patrol, giving officers a better idea of what they're getting into before they even step out of their patrol car.
'As the pilots are listening to live 911 calls coming in in real-time they're able to deploy the drone to that location before the CAD call even exists so the situational awareness we're able to provide our officers has never been like this before, I know it wasn't when I worked patrol,' Lt. Lange said.
With drones becoming more popular Elk Grove PD has a transparency portal where you can view where its drones have flown in recent days to confirm if drones you see belong to them.
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